Friday, July 11, 2008

BEWARE OF THIS BOOK!

If you have children or grandchildren, work with children at church, or you have neighborhood children whose parents you know, please take note of the information below and pass it along to others. Schools are distributing this book to children through the Scholastic Book Club.
The name of the book is Conversations with God..
James Dobson talked about this book twice this week. It is devastating. Parents, churches and Christian schools need to be aware of it. Please pass this information on to church/e-mail addressees, Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins,friends. Please pay special attention not only to what your kids watch on TV, inmovie theaters, on the internet, and the music they listen to, but also be alert regarding the books they read.

Two particular books are, Conversations with God and Conversations with God for Teens, written by Neale D. Walsch.

They sound harmless enough by their titles alone. The books have been on the New York Times best sellers list for a number of weeks, and they make truth of the statement, "Don't judge abook by its cover or title." The author purports to answer various questions asked by kids using the"voice of God". However, the "answers" that he gives are not Bible-based and go against the very infallible word of God. For instance (and I paraphrase), when a girl asks the question "Why am I a lesbian?" His answer is that she was 'born that way' because of genetics (just as you were born right-handed, with brown eyes, etc.). Then he tells her to go out and "celebrate" her differences. Another girls poses the question "I am living with my boyfriend. My parents say that I should marry him because I am living in sin. Should I marry him?" His reply is, "Who are you sinning against? Not me, because you have done nothing wrong." Another question asks about God's forgiveness of sin. His reply "I do not forgive anyone because there is nothing to forgive. There is no such thing as right or wrong and that is what I have been trying to tell everyone, do not judge people. People have chosen to judge one another and this is wrong, because the rule is "'judge not lest ye be judged."

Not only are these books the false doctrine of the devil, but in some instances quote (in error) the Word of God. And the list goes on. These books (and others like it) are being sold to school children through (The Scholastic Book Club), and we need to be aware of what is being fed to our children.

Our children are under attack.

So I pray that you be sober and vigilantabout teaching your children the Word of God, and guarding their exposure to worldly mediums, because our adversary, the Devil, roams about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). We know that lions usually hunt for the slowest, weakest and YOUNGEST of its prey. Pass this on to every Believer you know. God bless! And, if you are indoubt, check out the books yourself.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Today in History


July 4, 1776
U.S. declares independence ~ No it wasn’t signed on this day - just approved.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king.

The declaration came 442 days after the first volleys of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts and marked an ideological expansion of the conflict that would eventually encourage France's intervention on behalf of the Patriots.

Most of the delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776, the first signature being that of John Hancock. Several signatures were obtained later ... George Wythe (Virginia) on August 27; Richard Henry Lee (Virginia), Elbridge Gerry (Massachusetts), Oliver Wolcott (Connecticut) signed in September; Matthew Thornton (New Hampshire) in November. Thomas McKean, representing Delaware, was serving in the army and was unavailable to add his ‘John Hancock’ until 1781.

Thomas Jefferson was the major author of the Declaration of Independence, but he had help from John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman. Following the natural rights theory of John Locke, the document proclaimed the equality of ‘all men’ and their ‘unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.
The authors wrote that governments were established to secure these rights; when they failed to do so, the people could abolish them. This one statement alone was considered as treason to the British crown. And so, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock said, “Now we must all hang together.”
Always the sharp wit, Benjamin Franklin smilingly stated, “Or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 after Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. Under the banner of "no taxation without representation," colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the tax. With its enactment in November, most colonists called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest in the colonies, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766.

Most colonists continued to quietly accept British rule until Parliament's enactment of the Tea Act in 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny. In response, militant Patriots in Massachusetts organized the "Boston Tea Party," which saw British tea valued at some 18,000 pounds dumped into Boston Harbor.

Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.

With the other colonies watching intently, Massachusetts led the resistance to the British, forming a shadow revolutionary government and establishing militias to resist the increasing British military presence across the colony. In April 1775, Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, ordered British troops to march to Concord, Massachusetts, where a Patriot arsenal was known to be located. On April 19, 1775, the British regulars encountered a group of American militiamen at Lexington, and the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.

Initially, both the Americans and the British saw the conflict as a kind of civil war within the British Empire: To King George III it was a colonial rebellion, and to the Americans it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens. However, Parliament remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead purchased German mercenaries to help the British army crush the rebellion. In response to Britain's continued opposition to reform, the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence and sold more than 500,000 copies in a few months. In the spring of 1776, support for independence swept the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments, and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a declaration.

The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other English theorists. The first section features the famous lines, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The second part presents a long list of grievances that provided the rationale for rebellion.

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to approve a Virginia motion calling for separation from Britain. The dramatic words of this resolution were added to the closing of the Declaration of Independence. Two days later, on July 4, the declaration was formally adopted by 12 colonies after minor revision. New York approved it on July 19. On August 2, the declaration was signed.

The American War for Independence would last for five more years. Yet to come were the Patriot triumphs at Saratoga, the bitter winter at Valley Forge, the intervention of the French, and the final victory at Yorktown in 1781. In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris with Britain, the United States formally became a free and independent nation.



On a Side Note

1826 ~ 50 years to the day, former President's Thomas Jefferson & John Adams died on July 4th.

1827 - Slavery was abolished in NY

1832 ~ It was on this day that America was sung in public for the first time -- at the Park Street Church in Boston, MA. Dr. Samuel Francis Smith wrote the words, borrowing the tune from a German songbook. Ironically, and unknown to Dr. Smith at the time, the melody is the same as the British national anthem.

1881 - Tuskegee Institute opened its doors to the students who built it with bricks made in their own kiln. An abandoned plantation in Tuskegee, Alabama was the site chosen for Booker T. Washington’s institution for academic and vocational training.

1895 - America the Beautiful, the famous song often touted as the true U.S. national anthem, was originally a poem written by Katherine Lee Bates. The Wellesley College professor’s poem was first published this day in the Congregationalist, a church newspaper.

1939 ~ Lou Gehrig retired from baseball due to Lou Gehrig disease, he later died in 1939

1955 - The first king cobra snakes born in captivity in the United States were hatched at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. A total of nine eggs hatched between July 4th and 12th of 1955.

1985 - A crowd, estimated at one million, gathered in Philadelphia to celebrate the 209th anniversary of America’s independence. The Beach Boys were joined by Mr. T. on drums to really add some fireworks to the festivities. The Oak Ridge Boys, Joan Jett and Jimmy Page joined in the celebration (but wouldn’t let Mr. T. play ...)

1997 - The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, launched by NASA from the Earth in December 1996, entered the atmosphere of Mars. A heat shield, parachutes, and airbags helped it land safely. The Sojourner rover searched the surface of Mars for rocks while millions of earthlings watch it on TV and the Internet.

Sources:
http://440.com/twtd/today.html
http://link.history.com/services/link/bcpid1184539009/bclid1213979358/bctid1209892871

Thursday, July 03, 2008

07-02-2008 Civil Rights Protection enacted on this date in 1964

On this day in history, July 2, 1964-- President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law. The following is the announcement the President made just prior to this signing--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My fellow Americans:
I am about to sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I want to take this occasion to talk to you about what that law means to every American.
One hundred and eighty-eight years ago this week, a small band of valiant men began a long struggle for freedom. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor not only to found a nation, but to forge an ideal of freedom--not only for political independence, but for personal liberty
--not only to eliminate foreign rule,but to establish the rule of justice in the affairs of men. That struggle was a turning point in our history. Today in far corners of distant continents, the ideals of those American patriots still shape the struggles of men who hunger for freedom.
This is a proud triumph. Yet those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning. From the minutemen at Concord to the soldiers in Viet-Nam, each generation has been equal to that trust.
Americans of every race and color have died in battle to protect our freedom. Americans of every race and color have worked to build a nation of widening opportunities. Now our generation of Americans has been called on to continue the unending search for justice within our own borders.We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights.We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings--not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin.The reasons are deeply imbedded in history and tradition and the nature of man. We can understand--without rancor or hatred--how this all happened. But it cannot continue. Our Constitution, the foundation of our Republic, forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it.
And the law I will sign tonight forbids it.
That law is the product of months of the most careful debate and discussion.
It was proposed more than one year ago by our late and beloved President John F. Kennedy.
It received the bipartisan support of more than two-thirds of the Members of both the House and the Senate.
An overwhelming majority of Republicans as well as Democrats voted for it.
It has received the thoughtful support of tens of thousands of civic and religious leaders in all parts of this Nation.
And it is supported by the great majority of the American people.
The purpose of the law is simple.
It does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others.
It does not give special treatment to any citizen.
It does say the only limit to a man's hope for happiness, and for the future of his children, shall be his own ability.
It does say that there are those who are equal before God shall now also be equal in the polling booths,
in the classrooms,
in the factories,
and in hotels,
restaurants,
movie theaters,
and other places that provide service to the public.
I am takingsteps to implement the law under my constitutional obligation to "take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
"First, I will send to the Senate my nomination of LeRoy Collins to be Director of the Community Relations Service.
Governor Collins will bring the experience of a long career of distinguished public service to the task of helping communities solve problems of human relations through reason and common sense.
Second, I shall appoint an advisory committee of distinguished Americans to assist Governor Collins in his assignment.
Third, I am sending Congress a request for supplemental appropriations to pay for necessary costs of implementing the law, and asking for immediate action.
Fourth, already today in a meeting of my Cabinet this afternoon I directed the agencies of this Government to fully discharge the new responsibilities imposed upon them by the law and to do it without delay, and to keep me personally informed of their progress.
Fifth, I am asking appropriate officials to meet with representative groups to promote greater understanding of the law and to achieve a spirit of compliance.
We must not approach the observance and enforcement of this law in a vengeful spirit.
Its purpose is not to punish.
Its purpose is not to divide, but to end divisions-
-divisions which have all lasted too long.
Its purpose is national, not regional.
Its purpose is to promote a more abiding commitment to freedom,
a more constant pursuit of justice,
and a deeper respect for human dignity.
We will achieve these goals because most Americans are law-abiding citizens who want to do what is right.
This is why the Civil Rights Act relies first on voluntary compliance, then on the efforts of local communities and States to secure the rights of citizens.
It provides for the national authority to step in only when others cannot or will not do the job.
This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our States, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of in justice in our beloved country.
So tonight I urge every public official,
every religious leader,
every business and professional man,
every working man,
every housewife-
-I urge every American-
-to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people-
-and to bring peace to our land.
My fellow citizens, we have come now to a time of testing. We must not fail. Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts.
Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole.
Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this Nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all.
Thank you and goodnight.
--------------------------------------------------
You can go to this page on about.com and read the text of this act http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/a/civilRights_act.htm
----------------------------------------------------
Sources:
Lydon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. "President Lyndon B. Johnson's Radio and Television Remarks Upon Signing the Civil Rights Bill July 2, 1964." Available from
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/640702.asp. Internet; accessed 02 July 2008.
Gill, Kathy. "US Civil Rights Act - 1964 Public Law 88-352." Available from
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/a/civilRights_act.htm. Internet; accessed 02 July 2008.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Stitch of the Day



Mile-a-Minute Lace


Mile-a-minute crochet can be worked with any hook and yarn you like. It makes fine cotton lace. Stripes made with worsted -weight yarn can be joined to make any number of projects, such as afghans, pillow, etc. A beginner can do it.


Here's how:

Ch 8, (dc, ch 2, dc) in 7th ch from hook, ch 3, (dc, ch 2, dc) in next ch, [ch 6, turn, (dc, ch 2, dc) in ch-3 sp, ch 3, (dc, ch 2, dc) in same ch-3 sp] rep to desired length, fasten off.


Joining strips: Ch 8, (dc, ch 2, dc) in 7th ch from hook, ch 3, (dc, ch 2, dc) in next ch, [ch 3, sl st in adjacent ch-6 sp of previous strip, ch 3, turn, (dc, ch 2, dc) in ch-3 sp, ch 3, (dc, ch 2, dc) in same ch-3 sp, ch 6, turn, (dc, ch 2, dc) in ch-3 sp, ch 3, (dc, ch 2, dc) in same ch-3 sp] rep until working strip is joined to previous strip, fasten off.


This is just one variation of Mile-a-Minute technique.


Try this for practice

Apple Mile-a-Minute Afghan & Pillow


This pdf can be found at the following http://www.crochet-world.com/featuredpattern.html for 1 day, otherwise, it can be found at the following;
Crochet World magazine, February 2002, Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 38-39, Copyright @ 2002 Crochet World Magazine. Most public library's usually carry this for loan or you can buy it on line by searching through ebay or google. Crochet World would also carry it for purchase.